Did you know parents can join in with our group efforts to bring light into the lives of local children and young people? We want to grow a community of parents who champion our vision in their children’s schools.

In a culture where 95% of children and young people don’t possess that wonderful connection with a Christian church, we believe as Christians we have a huge mission on our hands. That’s why we want to let every Christian parent know just how appreciated they are, for their influence over the children and young people of Southport who already know Jesus, and are instrumental in sharing their experience of faith with the other 95% every day of the week in local schools.

SASW Trust currently has two appointed youth workers and a handful of volunteers with different specialities, running projects supported financially and prayerfully by congregations and individuals across Southport. Our mission is much larger than two workers though! The influence of your children is so often overlooked, as is the influence you yourselves have on the children in your care and the school communities they are a part of.

So, what could you do to be a part of our Positive Parents project?

Letter to Parents

Even if you’re not a parent yourself, you can play a part in the Positive Parents project by clicking here to download and print the encouraging letter we’ve written to local Christian parents in Southport. And if you are a parent, why not have a read as well?!

At the gates

School drop-off and pick-up time is one of the few places we might find ourselves where we see such a diverse spread of society. Mums, dads, older siblings, younger siblings, grandparents, the wealthy and the struggling, the Christians and the Muslims, political left and political right, an author stood alongside those desperately trying to learn English as a new language, and probably some dogs too!

If you are aware of SASW Trust having visited school that day, what a great setting to have an encouraging word with a class teacher, in front of other adults, perhaps thanking them for having your friends from SASW Trust into school and expressing how glad you are, as a Christian parent, to know positive messages are being passed through school and the community by a charity you support (whether financially or otherwise). All it takes is brief thanks or a word or two in passing!

Treat your teachers!

We’re sure your children are an absolute dream to teach… right? Turns out some aren’t though, and adding that to stress filtering from top down, we reckon teaching is one very challenging profession.

What if you could be that one parent who goes the extra mile to make a difference to a teachers day. How about resourcing your child(ren) with a gift for the staff room? Perhaps with a thank you card. If you don’t feel the particular school engages very much with our work, perhaps you could pop in one of our positive parent business cards.

Take the time to write

We realise that asking someone to write a letter in this day and age (especially a busy parent) is a pretty big ask. That’s why it may well make all the difference if you were to write to a teacher or even senior leader.

There are about 20 schools locally on our books that we really appreciate having had the opportunity to work with over the last five years, and we believe parents appreciate that too. Perhaps a note of thanks from a few parents would go a long way.

There’s also a good few schools locally that never seem to get back to us or give any indication of wanting to work with us. If you feel your child(ren) attend such a school, perhaps you could write in to school as a means of further promoting what we do? We would ask that you get in touch with us first though if you’d like to do this. (We’re often working behind the scenes to help these schools understand our heart and expertise to communicate in an appropriate and relevant way, and have learnt there’s great power in the terminology one might use in promoting what we do!) It could also be that we’re working towards offering a particular resource to a specific school and could use you help in a more targeted way through your letter-writing.

Last year, one parent spotted that his children’s school never attended Mission Impossible. This was pretty understandable, as it is one of the largest schools around and transport was a huge barrier to them coming to a project they hadn’t yet experienced in action. This particular parent wrote in and offered to fund transport for a year in order that they could check out the project. It worked! They now are committing to come every year and since the first experience, fund their own coaches out of school funds to bring 120 children every year to our exciting Easter experience.

Talk to us

Whilst we’re on the topic of finding out our thoughts and strategies for particular schools, if we were to get talking, perhaps you might know of some projects or events going on in the life of your child(ren)’s school that you think it would be good for us to get involved with.

We find schools engage better with us when they understand our heart to serve and help them in what they already have going on. Perhaps it’s a summer fayre that we could provide some live music for, or offer some of our sports equipment (including inflatable footy pitch) for free. Maybe it’s a school production that they could do with some support in music or drama, or even technical equipment. Maybe your school is appealing for volunteers to take part in paired reading schemes, or are arranging a site cleanup on a Saturday that we could mobilise some volunteers to help with?

The possibilities are endless! If you ever spot anything in your school newsletters, why not get in touch and let us know. We’re always up for getting stuck in and befriending local schools and equipping the wider Church in building bridges across their communities. We’re also always up for a coffee too – if you’d like to chat more, just get in touch!